Couples doing stationary dances, like West Coast Swing, Cha Cha, Nightclub, freestyle (not dancing as a couple) etc., should be toward the middle of the dance floor, so couples doing progressive dances like Waltz, Two-Step, Polka, etc., can move around the outside.

Guys should wear dance shoes when possible. The soft suede soles of the dance shoes only hurt the girls a tolerable amount when feet end up in the wrong place. I know a girl who loses about one toenail a year because of dancing with cowboys who wear boots when they dance. Unable to take the pain anymore, she often wears boots now to protect her toes… even though she hates the way boots look on the dance floor.

Don’t bring drinks onto the dance floor. Drinks, especially the syrupy ones, can do permanent damage to the bottom of dance shoes. Yes, the dance shoes the ladies wear have suede soles also.

Guys; when asking a lady to dance, be specific about the dance or dances you have in mind. “Would you like to do an East Coast Swing?” gives the ladies a heads-up as to what your intentions are. The vast majority of ladies really hate it when they get onto the dance floor with no idea what direction or count to start with. If a lady doesn’t know how to do the particular dance, it is very awkward for her to do anything about it once they are on the dance floor.

I recommend you don’t sing along with the music while you dance. While it’s true that you are mentally giving your dance partner distance so they can concentrate on the dance, it is also distracting. And, to the dance partner, it seems like you are in your own world, and would rather not be with the person you are dancing with. I bet it would be fun if both dancers sing, though.

Even though dancing is technically considered a contact sport… guys, don’t purposely run your partner into other dancers, even if the other dancers seem inconsiderate. Crashes happen on crowded dance floors. Very few ladies don’t mind crashes. The ladies have little control over where they are located (other than where the dance starts… more on that in a minute). It’s likely the other guy isn’t a good enough dancer do know what he is doing. Remember how hard it was for you to learn how to dance… let it slide… be patient. If the other guy seems to be a proficient dancer, but he’s still out of control, a gentle statement should be made. Give him a light bump, crowd him for two seconds, and then move away. Don’t create a conflict, just wake him up, and remind him that he only deserves ¼ or so of the dance floor.

Traditional etiquette specifies that the men should lead the ladies onto the dance floor. Sometimes the path to the dance floor is treacherous because of thick crowds, blinding lights, broken glass, steps, puddles, and drunks passed out on the floor. I’ve been letting the ladies lead the way to dance floor for two reasons. Women can cut a path through a crowd more efficiently than a man can, creating a wedge that helps get the guy get through. And, it’s easier for a six foot guy to see over and around a five foot lady than vice versa, so, it’s safer. The problem is that when the couples get to the dance floor, the ladies often step right into the dance patterns of other dancers because the ladies are not accustomed to instantly recognizing what dances are happening, or predicting the patterns, because the men are responsible for knowing where the dancers are going.

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Featured comment:

My name is Lily and in my spare time I teach basic dance classes for students of all ages at my community center. I would like to thank you for providing such wonderful information on your page – http://davidduane.com/dance/dance-information-and-links/ – I have been referring to it as I put together some new guides and materials for my students, and some of the resources you provided have helped a bunch!!

I also wanted to share with you this great page all about ballet history and techniques that my assistant, Cammy, found :

It would be great if you could include this on your page! Our classes have found it to be very helpful in learning a lot about ballet and we think your visitors will find it useful too :-).

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Thank you Lilly. Several of the social dancers have taken ballet, and, it shows. They learn faster, and they look better. I can always tell when I step up to somebody who has taken ballet because their posture is exactly what a dancers posture is supposed to be like. And, the ballet dancers keep the posture even when difficult situations arise on the dance floor. I love dancing with people who have learned ballet. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), the skills of ballet translate even to the country dances. David Duane

Graham Central Station Tempe has permanently closed on 11/17/2012. By the late afternoon two days later, a good amount of cleanup had been done, as captioned for the picture below.

This super-sucks. I’ve been going to Graham’s pretty much every Thursday and Saturday for the last five years, and every Friday for the last two years.

They’ve been doing great business on Saturday nights… in fact, it’s been so crowded on Saturdays that I’ve been trying to find a less crowded place to go on Saturdays. Thursdays have been OK, but, the crowds were usually gone by 9:00. Fridays were not crowded at all, which made for the best dancing anywhere I know of.

Thanks to the connections many of us have on facebook, most of the regular patrons knew about the closing within two days.

By the next day, a goodbye party for Graham’s was arranged for Wednesday night at one of the other Graham brother businesses, Cactus Moon in Mesa. Laina Lee Ferris has been teaching dance lessons there for over a year, so it works out very nicely for her that the Goodbye Graham Central Station party is happening on the night when she teaches her lessons. Cactus Moon has a small dance floor compared to Graham’s, but, it’s still one of the larger floors around, dance studious excluded.

Today, four days after Graham’s closed, Sandi and Dwight Nelson, who had been teaching the Thursday and Saturday dance lessons at Graham’s for 20 years, sent an email to the people on their mailing list to advise that they will be teaching at Paragon Dance Center on Saturday nights. Lessons will be $7.00, and there will be open dancing afterward. Paragon has the best dance floor I know of, but, there is no beer in the house. Paragon Dance Center is two miles east of Graham’s, on the SE corner of Elliot and Rural. While the environment at Paragon is not country, I expect Dwight and Sandi will play more country music than normal for a dance studio.

Graham Central Station Tempe closed on 11/17/2012. This is Monday, two days later. There is a pallet to the left of the front door, there are chairs, disassembled tables, and other bar stuff just inside the door, and a trailer in back that appears to have DJ equipment on it.

I received a call from a scammer at cell phone 252-659-2258. It was a woman with a strong accent… maybe Middle Eastern. I think she said she was with Windows… after a couple of minutes, I asked if she was with Microsoft, and she said yes. She said she called because she received a report from my computer that the computer had been infected by viruses. She had me hold down the Windows key and hit the letter r, which opened the Run dialog box. She had me type ‘inf’ and click the OK button. She said the inf folder contained infections, and all of these files are infections. I know that these are the files that are supposed to be on the computer, so I pushed her to tell me which one was the infection. She said they all were infections, including the .NETFramework folder… she said that too was an infection. She doesn’t know anything about computers. I think she is just reading a script. She kept telling me that my computer would continue to be infected if I didn’t do what she told me to do. I should have found out what she was going to have me do, but, I got bored and told her she was obviously trying to scam me. She insisted my computer would become even more infected. I hung up after going back and forth a few more times. I researched a little bit, and found that a guy from the same phone number was doing something slightly different, and directed that guy to a website, where he would be connected with somebody who would access his computer remotely to remove the viruses.

Update 7/20/2012 (Original post was 7/7/2012): We received a call today from a man with a (probably) Indian accent for the same scenario…. They were calling from Windows because they had received a report that our computer was infected. This time, though, the name and phone number were listed as unavailable.

Oddly, even with all the news programs I’ve been watching, I’ve never been able to figure out what a super pac is. So I researched it a little, and interpreted it this way: Super pacs are groups that give ‘the few’ a chance to rule ‘the many.’

Businesses cannot contribute to candidates at all, and individuals can only contribute $2,500 to each candidate per election. So, businesses or people who want to contribute more than $2,500 donate their money to a Political Action Committee (PAC). So, it is the rich and businesses who donate to super pacs.

This either means Republicans have more money to give away, or, they care more about who wins elections. I skimmed the internet, and haven’t found significant evidence that Republicans have more money (it depends on how the counting is done, but, all things considered, they are about equal). Is it logical to deduce that Republicans care more about who wins?

I witnessed around 100x more emails, statements, jokes, etc. from Obama haters than from George W. Bush haters, when he was in office. I am certain Republicans are more zealous than Democrats in my little sphere of society – facebook, a large country dance bar, and, located in Arizona – but, I suspect the same is true, to some degree at least, for the whole country.

Consider what the NRA was up against in 1994. 59% of Americans wanted gun control laws to be stricter (from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20029126-503544.html), and there were many groups trying to make gun laws more stringent. Yet, gun control laws did not become stricter because the NRA promoted politicians that were sympathetic to their cause.

In short, super pacs are the means for the passionate to promote their beliefs. Super pacs make it possible for minority interest groups to get things the general masses would not be in favor of.

When photographing culture on Mill Ave, I usually pick out the best individual shots for the evening. This week, I found that I had several series of pictures that were unusually interesting.

I'm not sure she made the right statement.

This girl was promoting a person who does body painting (and murals, cars, etc.) by walking around wearing just paint, shorts, and shoes. There was tape over her nipples, but, it appeared that she was topless (she practically was). What caught my eye in this series is the look of horror from the girl in the background, and then the look she gave her guy.

I love to try to imagine what he is saying.

I think she said something rude to him, which he seems to have enjoyed hearing.

If necessity is the mother of invention, than boredom is the mother of a profoundly useless project. Here, my goal was to show how much pollen a tree produces by throwing items into the tree to shake the pollen loose. Turns out, the project wasn’t as useless as I thought it would be, though. I knew there would be an easily visible amount of pollen, but, what I saw was almost an explosion. The cloud of pollen was visible as it blew a couple of houses down the street.

I keep getting emails and running across videos that talk about horrible things Monsanto is doing to us and the planet. I don’t honestly know how much of it is true, but, I’m convinced that enough of it is true that I have stopped using Monsanto products, and I urge others to do the same.

The one Monsanto product that I have reasonably confirmed to an especially horrid product is Roundup, which clearly causes hardships for farmers who are not growing genetically modified food (GMF).

In short, Monsanto has created crops, most notably, corn, which are resistant to the killing effects of Roundup. Farmers use Roundup to kill the undesired plants within their cropland, but, Roundup gets into nearby crops, killing foods that are not resistant to Roundup. The herbicide is especially resistant to breaking down, so it is transmitted by air and runoff, and ends up in nearby habitats of wildlife and human populations and, of course, the Roundup is in and on the food that the farmers are growing and we are eating.

Alarmist groups have been saying Roundup causes infertility and cancer… I haven’t seen definite proof of that though.

Obviously we can simply not buy Roundup for our lawn care. Also, we can purchase organic food.

My brother, Brett, got a Nissan Leaf around the end of December. Here are some impressions, from a Phoenix area point of view.

What everybody cares about, is, can the limited range of the Leaf be too much of a deterrent to getting a lot of good use out of the car? In short, it is a challenge, and I could only recommend the leaf as a second car (Brett also has a pickup truck, for longer trips).

Nissan says the Leaf can go more than 100 miles on a charge. We are not finding that to be true. Driven very gently, with no A/C or heat, it looks like 75 miles is about the comfortable and safe limit. After about 75 miles, the driver gets warnings that the battery needs charging, and, within a couple more miles, the amount of available power is cut dramatically to prevent damage to the battery. Trying to guess if you have enough battery charge to make a trip can be quite stressful.

The console display in the Leaf only shows locations where the car can be charged at the Nissan dealerships, of which there are about 10 in the valley. Brett has to use an app on his phone to see where another 25-35 charging stations are located in the Phoenix area. Supposedly, many more charging stations will eventually be installed. Smartly, the charging stations are standardized, so any modern electric car can use them.

The charging stations can be a challenge to find. At a hotel in Scottsdale, near Kierland Commons, the charging station was on the driveway past the main lobby. A charging station in Old Towne Scottsdale is in an alley… difficult to find as it was, it was a pretty cool location.

With no goal in mind, other than to see what the Leaf is like to use in everyday life, we messed around thusly: Even though we could have made the trip outlined below without charging along the way, we went to a couple of charging stations to see how useful they are.

Brett drove from his house in Gilbert, to my house in Chandler (11.8 miles), and we headed to Scottsdale Fashion Square. There are no charging stations at the mall, so, we plugged in at the charging station in Old Towne Scottsdale (19.8 miles), intending to take the free trolley to the mall. The trolley wasn’t running as expected, so, we drove to the mall (0.9 miles), had coffee, and then drove to the charging station behind Monti’s Casa La Vieja (6.3 miles), on Mill Ave, in Tempe. Google Earth shows a charging station at Monti’s (on the wrong side of the building), but, the app on my brother’s phone shows that the charger is out of service. Monti’s has been pretty protective of its parking lot during special events on Mill Ave, so, we don’t know how available the charger will be when we really need it. It turned out that the charging station is operational, so we plugged in, and went to dinner. We went back to my house (16.6 miles), and he headed to his home in Gilbert (10.8 miles).

Summary of mileage: When Brett picked me up in Chandler, the Leaf indicated that it had a range of about 80 miles. During the trip, we charged the car for a total of about 1 ½ hours (5.0 kWHr, 19.6 miles). When he dropped me off, the Leaf indicated that it had about 25 miles of range left. The trip was about 65 miles, so, we had gotten about 20 miles for the 1 ½ hours of charging. If we had made this trip during the summer, using the A/C, I suspect that the remaining range when he dropped me off would have been less than 5 miles. The trip consumed about 20.7kWHr, so, off peak electricity cost about $0.75 (or, on peak @ $0.12 kWHr, it would have cost $2.35 in electricity). If we had taken his truck, which gets 15 MPG, the trip would have cost $15.00 for gasoline.

In addition to saving money by using electricity instead of gasoline, the Leaf saves money by not needing oil changes, transmission fluid changes, and air filters. Because of the regenerative braking, if driven smartly, the Leaf could conceivably go for its lifetime without needing a brake pad replacement.

There are two ways to charge the car at home: Plug in to a 110V outlet to charge the Leaf battery in 21 hours, or, have a 220V charging station installed to charge the battery in four hours. The 220V charging station costs about $2000.00.

There is a third party vender that can modify the portable interface stored in the trunk of the Leaf to accept both 120V and 240V for about $400. Brett will be having this modification performed, so we will be able to make a trip from his house in Gilbert to our parents’ house in Glendale (60 miles), where he will get a charge from a 240V socket so he can make it back to Gilbert (which is another 60 miles).

There are quick chargers that can charge the car 0 – 80% in 30 minutes, if the Leaf has the $750 option installed (optional in the first year, 2011. After that, it is a standard feature). As of January of 2012, no such chargers are yet installed in the metro Phoenix area. I would like to see one around the center of town, perhaps near Camelback and 16th Street. Nissans’ 10-year plan places such chargers every 30-40 miles on all interstate freeways, making cross-country commutes possible (but, not necessarily convenient, of course).

So that’s about what it’s like as far as range and charging. People are also concerned that the Leaf might be too slow to be safe on the road. It runs a quarter mile at 17.3 seconds, finishing at 78 mph, which is completely reasonable, and comparable to a quick gasoline economy car. Top speed is 90 mph.

The way the car feels when accelerating is especially cool, because of the lack of engine noise. When driving up a parking lot ramp, the car just goes, without feeling like it is making the slightest amount of effort or fuss. The lack of noise and vibration is truly a beautiful thing.

The display console works very well when backing up, but, it is a too small for comfortable use of the navigation system, which comes as a standard feature.

The navigation system is lacking. A five year old Garmin I have been using points in the direction of locations, and shows how far away they are, but, the navigation system in the Leaf doesn’t show the direction, forcing me to look closely at the addresses to figure out which one I want to go to. I hope a firmware upgrade for the navigation system fixes that.

So, like I said at the beginning, the Leaf won’t make it as an only car. Since the Phoenix area is so spread out, owners will need to plan how they can charge the batteries on longer commutes. It’s not for everybody.

It seems like this car should go over especially well for people in small cities like Payson, Prescott, or Flagstaff, who have another car for longer commutes, or don’t make longer commutes. This car won’t suffer from lack of air like gas powered cars, making it feel rather peppy in comparison.

A couple of years ago, I was ecstatic to get a third place finish in one of the Jack’n’Jill preliminary dance competitions at Graham Central Station. My goal this year was to get 1st place in one of the preliminaries, which I’ve managed to do several times so far. Though I appear at the top of the leaderboard, I am only in that position because I am the only person who competes almost every week, and the better dancers only compete every now and then. But, then again, some of those dancers are not good at every one of the dances, and I am proficient at all of the dances in which we will be competing during finals. Placing in the top three in the finals on March 8 is a little bit of a longshot.

This Jack’n’Jill competition is for beginners, but, it’s fair to say that we are all proficient at most of the dances. There will be 10 leaders and 10 followers in the finals. As in the preliminaries, competitors do not know who they dance with in the finals… Names will be pulled out of a hat to determine who dances with whom. The six dances will be West Coast Swing, Nightclub, Cha Cha, Waltz, Progressive Two-Step, and Arizona Two-Step.

Somebody tried to scam me by trying to get me to send a camera lens to Nigeria that I was trying to sell on Craigslist. Having worked at the shipping company DHL, I knew the risk of sending something to Nigeria was extremely high (fraud information: http://www.wymoo.com/countries/fraud-zones/).

The correspondence is posted below if you want detail, but, basically, somebody with the email address of lindacross064@yahoo.com, going by the name of Linda Cross, had me send her a PayPal request for funds, and, when I realized the item was supposed to be sent to Nigeria, I backed out of the “deal.” The address in Nigeria would certainly be an undeliverable address (non-existent), and the person in Nigeria would pick the shipment up at the DHL office.

In more detail, here’s what happened. “Linda Cross” replied to my ad on Craigslist, asking if the lens was still for sale. I said it was, so she asked me to send a PayPal request.

Since I had never used Craigslist or PayPal, I figured this might be the way non-cash transactions are made, so, I set up the PayPal account, and sent the PayPal request for the $450.00 we agreed on. I received an email from what appeared to be PayPal, but, the addressors line said the email was from ‘Linda Cross(lindacross064@yahoo.com) fundstransfer.approved@gmail.com; on behalf of; service@paypal.com paymentalert.agency@accountant.com’, which didn’t look quite right. The email said $610.00 had been approved to pay for shipping, and an address in Nigeria was provided. I received another email from that suspicious “PayPal” source that used grammar that a professional company wouldn’t use… “We just want to let you know that we are yet to confirm shipment, as the item has not been posted yet. Kindly get back to us…,” as two of three examples. Furthermore, when I logged in to PayPal, the request was still in Pending status. I cancelled the PayPal request, and sent Linda a message to explain why I wouldn’t ship the lens to Nigeria.

She gave me an address in California to send the lens to. I googled the address in California, and found that the house is for sale… I wasn’t able to confirm that the house was vacant, but, I am reasonably sure that it was. I advised that I would not ship the item at all, and offered to meet her for a cash exchange (I live in Arizona). I did not hear from her again.

Our correspondence:

***** Linda Cross Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro Autofocus Lens with Tripod Mount Ring – $450 (Chandler) 11/17/2011 7:08 PM
hi there
i will like to know if you still have it for sale in good working condition

***** Me – 11/18/2011 12:38 PM
Yes, it is still for sale, and in perfect working condition.
David

***** Linda Cross 11/18/2011 3:04 PM
Thanks for the response, i only wish to make the purchase for my nephew use, so kindly email me your paypal request so i can proceed for the payment as soon as possible.
regards

(I set up a PayPal account and sent a PayPal request.)
***** Me – 11/18/2011 4:28 PM
Thank you Linda,
I have sent the PayPal request. I’ve never done a transaction through PayPal, so, let me know if I do anything wrong. I’m assuming that I will get confirmation that the money is available to me when you accept the request, and then I can give the lens to you.
I am going to Graham Central Station tonight (Thursday) from 6:00 to 9:00, at Elliot and Priest. I will have the lens with me. Or, let me know if you would like to meet somewhere else tomorrow… I’ll be available all day, and then I’ll be at Graham Central Station again at 6:00.
I’ve attached a picture of myself so you can find me at Graham Central Station, in case that is where you want to meet me. I have facial hair now.
Thanks again,
David Duane

***** Linda Cross 11/18/2011 4:26 PM
i have just sent you the payment of 610 including the postage to my nephew,and i belive you should have been notified by mail from paypal,please quickly post it out to my nephew asap and let me know the tracking number,i just wanna let you know that i’ve paid more only to save you to postage hassle okay,and here is the postage address below..
Alex Junior
50 oshogbo Street Ijeshatedo
Surulere lagos
23401,Nigeria.
Thanks

***** service@paypal.com Notification of an Instant Payment Received From Linda Cross(lindacross064@yahoo.com) 11/18/2011 4:27 PM
Notification of an Instant Payment Received From Linda Cross(lindacross064@yahoo.com)
fundstransfer.approved@gmail.com; on behalf of; service@paypal.com paymentalert.agency@accountant.com
Hello David Duane,
You have an Instant Payment of $610.00 USD from Linda Cross(lindacross064@yahoo.com) It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account.
Note from Linda Cross:
i have just sent you the payment,for the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro Autofocus Lens with Tripod Mount Ring ,including the postage to my nephew,please quickly post it out to my nephew and let me know the tracking number,
Payment Details
Purchased From:David Duane
Transaction ID :6R131624557805
Item Number Item Title Quantity Price Subtotal
XXXXXX Goods 1 $450.00
USD $450.00
Shipping & Handling via USPS Express-Mail Delivery to 234xx :
(includes any seller handling fees) $150.00 USD
Shipping Insurance (offered): $10.00 USD
Total $610.00 USD
Delivery Information
Address :
Alex Junior
50 oshogbo Street Ijeshatedo
Surulere lagos
23401,Nigeria..
Address Status:
Confirmed
________________________________________
Important Note: This PayPal® payment has been deducted from the buyer’s account and has
been “APPROVED”but will not be credited to your account until the shipment reference/tracking
number is sent to us for verification so as to secure both the buyer and the seller.
Below are the necessary information requested before your account will be credited.
Send tracking number to us or email us through this mail
PaymentAlert.agency@accountant.com and our customer care service will attend to you. As soon as you send us the shipment’s tracking number to us for security purposes and the safety of the buyer and the seller,the money will be credited to your account.
**PLEASE NOTE**
Once item has been shipped and the tracking number sent to us,
You will receive a “CONFIRMATION EMAIL” from PayPal® Team informing you that the Fund has been credited
Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

***** service@paypal.com Confirmation of an Instant Payment Received 11/18/2011 4:29 PM
Hello David Duane,
Thank you for using PayPal for your online auctions. We at PayPal are ensuring that all our customers and auction site are fraud free.
We just want to let you know that we are yet to confirm shipment, as the item has not been posted yet. Kindly get back to us as soon as the item is posted, so that we can confirm shipment and the money will be credited into your account immediately.
In our efforts to secure our merchants, We are now receiving payments for items that are to be shipped internationally through our secure server. This is to ensure that the seller and buyer do their responsibility in every transaction we handle.We have now received and confirmed payment from LINDA CROSS Description:Goods.This payment is currently pending to be credited into your account due to the security measures we have taken. You are now required to ship out the item and send us the shipment reference number for verification of shipment. As soon as we have verified the shipment which normally takes about 24 hours, your account will be credited with the full payment.This security measure is embark on, due to the fact that the buyer was subscribed under”PayPal User Protection”Policy so as to secure the buyer’s transaction. This security methods have been taken due to fraudulent sellers, if you click the links below you will see an example of these eBay sellers:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4386952.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4385956.stm
We await the shipment reference number for verification so we can credit your account immediately. Note that you are advised not to send out the shipment reference number to the buyer until we have verified the shipment and credited your account.
Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team.

***** Linda Cross 11/18/2011 4:31 PM
i have just sent you the payment of 610 including the postage to my nephew,and i belive you should have been notified by mail from paypal,please quickly post it out to my nephew asap and let me know the tracking number,i just wanna let you know that i’ve paid more only to save you to postage hassle okay,and here is the postage address below..

***** Linda Cross 11/18/2011 4:38 PM
did you receive my payment i sent you

***** Linda Cross 11/18/2011 5:37 PM
hi david
what wrong

(The PayPal request was still in Pending status, so, I canceled the PayPal Request.)

***** Me – 11/19/2011 11:48 AM
Hello Linda,
I had to cancel the PayPal request. Nigeria is a known hotbed of fraud and scams. There is no reason for me to take the risk of sending something there. Unfortunately, a few rotten people (scammers) have hurt the country of Nigeria by making it dangerous to participate in commerce with the legitimate good citizens of that country. I apologize for the inconvenience. Please help the county of Nigeria by doing what you can to stop fraud.
I would be happy to meet you in Chandler or Tempe for a cash transaction, if you like.
Thank you,
David

***** Linda Cross 11/19/2011 2:39 PM
you can send it to my cousin here in the state cos i already paid for it here is the address and he will send it to nigeria since you don’t want to send it there thanks
Alex Fred
11612 fredrick
st Garden Grove,
CA 92840

***** Me – 11/19/2011 5:04 PM
I’m sorry. I’m not comfortable mailing the lens. I had cancelled the PayPal request before I sent you the e-mail advising that I wouldn’t send the lens to Nigeria, and that I would be glad to work out a cash exchange.
The reason I used Craigslist is because transactions are supposed to be local. I had no idea when you told me you wanted to purchase the lens that you wanted me to send it somewhere. You will want to use eBay if you intend to have an item shipped. Or, at least let the seller know ahead of time, so it can be factored in as part of the deal.
David